The Kazakh Chairmanship and the Secretariat of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) took stock of the progress made during the first half of the year in the implementation of the Chairmanship priorities and initiatives of President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev put forward at the Sixth CICA Summit on 13 October 2022 in Astana.
In this regard, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan held a solemn ceremony of approving the updated Road Map of the CICA Secretariat for the Implementation of the Priorities of the CICA Chairmanship for 2023-2024 (RMS).
At the meeting, the CICA Secretary General stressed that the updated document reflects significant progress in the implementation of the main task set by the Summit - the transformation of CICA into a full-fledged international organization.
In particular, as requested by the CICA heads of state and government, the Chairmanship and the Secretariat, in consultation with all Member States, have developed a draft road map for transformation reflecting specific areas of future reforms. The draft has already been agreed by all countries at the working level and is expected to be endorsed by the CICA Council of Foreign Ministers this September at an informal meeting in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session.
In the first half of the year, CICA also made great progress in the work of permanent institutions – the Youth Council (YC), the Business Council (BC) and the Think Tank Forum (TTF).
The concept paper of the next YC meeting, which will be held in the second half of the year in Uzbekistan, has already been developed and circulated among the Member States. A lot of work has been done to prepare the next meeting of the BC, which will be held on 14 September in Almaty on the sidelines of the Almaty Investment Forum and will consider issues of renewable energy, green finance and food security.
The CICA Member States approved the TTF annual work plan for 2023 in April. The next meeting of the TTF will be held on 27-29 August in Xining, Qinghai Province, China. Regarding the newly established CICA Fund, the Secretariat has developed standards for project proposals, and specific projects and voluntary contributions are anticipated from Member States.
Ambassador Kairat Sarybay also informed the Deputy Foreign Minister about the significant progress made in the first half of the year in the implementation of the tasks of further institutional development of CICA, announced by President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev at the Sixth CICA Summit.
The Secretary General particularly noted the large amount of work carried out by the Chairmanship and the Secretariat on the creation of the CICA Council on Sustainable Connectivity (CSC), the institutionalization of the CICA Finance Summit, the preparation of the CICA High-level Conference on Environmental Issues (HLCE), which will be held in Astana in 2024, the establishment of the Partnership Network of Leading Universities of the CICA Member States (PNLU) and support of volunteer movements in the CICA region.
In particular, the state bodies of Kazakhstan are finalizing the development of the concept paper on the CSC with the assistance of the Secretariat and in consultation with the CICA Member States. A series of expert meetings will be held to discuss the concept paper and agree on the draft regulations establishing the CSC.
Work is being completed on the concept paper of institutionalization and the draft regulations of the CICA Finance Summit together with the Chinese side – the initiator of this Forum. The next fourth meeting of the Finance Summit is planned to be held in China at the end of this year.
The development of the HLCE concept paper has been completed and consultations have begun with the countries coordinating the work of CICA in the environmental dimension. The main purpose of the HLCE will be to identify urgent environmental problems in the region and develop joint actions of the CICA countries to solve them. The key topics proposed for the Conference are: green transformation, sustainable environment in the CICA region, prospects for the creation of a carbon market and the establishment of the CICA Environmental Council.
The concept paper of the PNLU, aimed at strengthening cooperation among national education systems in the CICA region, was developed and discussed with interested Member States at the expert level. On the basis of the paper, a draft PNLU memorandum among the participating universities has been prepared for discussion and approval by the CICA Member States and in the future for the voluntary accession of universities.
The preparation of the Rally of the Volunteer Movement Leaders of the CICA Member States under the auspices of the CICA Youth Council in 2024 in Astana has successfully begun. A preparatory event was held in the form of a panel session of the International Volunteer Forum on 20 June 2023. The concept paper of the Rally is to be developed.
The updated RMS also reflects the results of the work and further plans of the Chairmanship and the Secretariat on the substance and organization of the activities of the CICA governing bodies and permanent institutions and other important areas of the organization's daily activities: updating concept papers in the priority areas of the CICA Catalogue of Confidence Building Measures, implementation of the 2023 Plan of Implementation of Confidence Building Measures approved by the CICA Senior Officials Committee, strengthening cooperation with external partners, raising CICA visibility, as well as strengthening the Secretariat.
In his speech at the RMS approval ceremony, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan Ambassador Kanat Tumysh stressed the importance of consistently promoting the transformation of CICA into an international organization, maintaining high dynamics of interaction among the Member States, including within the framework of the governing bodies of the organization, and high-quality preparation for the upcoming CICA ministerial meeting in New York.
Kanat Tumysh thanked CICA Secretary General Kairat Sarybay and the staff of the Secretariat for their active assistance in the implementation of the priorities of the Kazakh Chairmanship and contribution to the strengthening of CICA. He stressed that the Kazakh Chairmanship will continue its efforts to successfully implement the tasks of CICA and further strengthen the role of the organization in the international arena. The Secretary General, in turn, expressed gratitude to the Chairmanship for the effective political guidance of the organization's activities.
Background information: The RMS is a regularly updated action plan for the implementation of the rich agenda of priorities of the Kazakh Chairmanship in CICA and all tasks assigned to the Secretariat by the Member States of the organization.
